


Mated for Humanity

by Kyokitakyo



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alpha Eren Yeager, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Forced Bonding, M/M, Non-Consensual, Omega Jean Kirstein, Omega Verse, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:21:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25579501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyokitakyo/pseuds/Kyokitakyo
Summary: After presenting as an alpha, Eren finds that he no longer has control when he shifts into a titan. To solve this problem he must take on an omega mate. That omega just so happens to be an unwilling Jean Kirstein. Will he be forced to mate with the hot-headed titan shifter?(This is completely based on a fanfiction by ForrestFox called Elysium)
Relationships: Jean Kirstein/Eren Yeager
Comments: 49
Kudos: 189





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Elysium](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963534) by [ForrestFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForrestFox/pseuds/ForrestFox). 



> This is completely based on a fanfiction by ForrestFox called Elysium. Many of the concepts and ideas I use in this story come straight from theirs, so I give full credit to them. Please go read their story, it’s very good! Not everything in my story will be the same, I just loved the original concept and wanted to try writing it in my own way!
> 
> Link to Elysium: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963534
> 
> So the setting is like sometime within season 1, and I honestly don't really know when or where it is, sorry. I apologize in advance for them being OOC, because it’s definitely going to happen. Please enjoy!

Everyone knew that Eren was a hot-headed alpha. He was never far from making a loud outburst due to his extreme lack of control when it came to his emotions and opinions. His personality didn’t exactly mix well with the natural traits that were bestowed upon most alphas. They had a natural sense of superiority, which led Eren to immediately thinking he was right about everything and that all things should go his way. This had been the mindset that had been instilled within him for practically his whole life.

Unfortunately, all of these factors led to a not so wonderful predicament. His impulsiveness and lack of personal control had eventually become a legitimate problem for the Survey Corps, as well as for mankind. See, he was supposed to be their saving grace, the weapon which they would harness to finally defeat the titans and bring peace for the human race. But that was pretty much impossible with the state he had fallen into. Unfortunately, he no longer had control when in his titan form.

It used to be a piece of cake for him. He would transform and retain his sense of control and consciousness, following orders and going around with ease. When training with his power, he had only shown signs of getting better at harnessing his titan form and using it to fight. Things didn’t start to go downhill until he hit what some like to call “second gender puberty”. 

At some point in their lives, everyone would present as one of the secondary genders. You could usually tell which one they were before this point, but this was when they got the rush of hormones that differentiated them from each other. Alphas would become stronger and more eager to establish dominance. Betas became more conscious of others around them and sought to please and help them. Omegas became more submissive, sensitive, and weak.

As soon as Eren presented he became aggressive. He was always breaking out into fights with other Alphas and sometimes even picking on betas. He’d get angry at people and snap at them constantly without much provoking. 

The first time they had a titan transformation training session with Eren after he’d presented, he immediately lost any form of control. Similar to the time he’d transformed to lift the boulder at Trost, he had started attacking fellow soldiers without warning. Although there were no casualties, several suffered from pretty serious injuries.

The Survey Corps had to keep this whole situation under wraps and not let word of it spread. If the higher-ups heard any news of the titan shifter becoming dangerous, they would probably sentence him to death immediately under the pretense that he had become a threat to mankind.

Levi didn’t completely disagree with that notion. No, he didn’t in any way wish for Eren to die, but he would not simply accept the deaths of any of his soldiers just because Eren went on a rampage. If it came to it and it was the only option, Levi would kill Eren to protect others. His soldiers were willing to endanger themselves for Eren, but he would not let them lose their lives unnecessarily because of the titan shifter.

So of course Erwin, Levi, and Hange all got together to come up with a plan in hopes of avoiding any conflict.

The idea was to figure out a way for Eren to regain his control and composure when he shifted. If they could bring down the level of aggressiveness and dominance he was showing off to every person he came across, then he might be able to return to normal with his titan form. He would theoretically stop giving into his natural instincts that came with being an alpha as well as a titan. 

“I think I may have thought of something that could work,” Hange spoke up after they had been discussing the situation for a good while.

“Yes, and what might that be?” Levi questioned.

“Well, it’s kind of obvious now that I think of it…”

“Then spit it out, will you?”

She put a hand up to her chin as if in deep thought. “After presenting, the traits of the secondary genders aren’t truly stabilized and calmed down until they find a mate. Once an alpha finds a mate, they have less of a reason to establish dominance all of the time. Not that the urge will be completely gone in any way, but still. I think that if Eren got a mate then it would solve our little problem here.”

“Shit, Hange, you want to force him to find a mate?” Levi responded in slight disbelief.

Erwin furrowed his eyebrows. “That does seem as if it could work… But I will admit that telling him he has to choose a mate so suddenly seems a little cruel. It takes time to make sure you're with the right person to spend the rest of your life with.”

“I mean we’re kind grasping at straws here. I don’t think we have time for him to select someone and court them. We can’t continue on with him being unreliable for too long, he’s become a liability. I would also prefer it if the kid didn’t have to die.”

Erwin sighed, “I suppose he’ll just have to find someone he already knows and they’ll just have to do. There’s a high possibility that he might have taken a liking to someone in his squad by now.”

Hange shifted a little, glancing downwards uncomfortably. “Once again, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think we’re going to have to limit his options. We need to ensure as much as possible that this will work, and to do that I think the mate is going to have to be an omega. An alpha would have much less of an effect on his aggressiveness, a beta would be okay at best, but an omega would be the most likely to satisfy his, uh, I guess you could say, urges and animalistic behavior.”

Levi frowned. “So you’re saying that not only are we going to force him to suddenly take a mate, but that it also must be an omega?”

“I don’t like it either Levi but I really do believe she has a point. I think this would be the right decision to make,” stated Erwin.

Levi didn’t like it but he gave in pretty quickly. “Listen, under other circumstances, I would resist this whole idea of yours a lot more. But I suppose if we don’t do this Eren will probably end up a lifeless body and so will a lot of our soldiers.”

“Glad we can all be on the same page about this then. Hange, are you aware of any members of Eren’s squad that happen to be omegas?”

Hange pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “I can’t recall from the top of my head, but I have the paperwork with those details. Would you like me to go retrieve it?”

Erwin nodded.“Yes, that would be good.”

She returned pretty quickly, shuffling through the papers as she walked, squinted at the words written down.

“I thought I remember there being more omegas than this. I guess I was wrong?”

“How many?” asked Erwin.

She looked up at him. “Uh, only two apparently.”

“Jesus, that’s barely anything for him to choose from!” Levi grimaced. 

Hange squinted harder at one of the papers. “Oh, drat!”

“What?”

“It seems as if one of them is already mated. Krista with the beta Ymir.” 

Levi wondered why this had to keep getting more complicated every minute. “So who’s our only option?”

…

Jean was gathered in the mess hall with his squad. They were just discussing their day and telling stories as they usually did as they waited for dinner to be served. 

Sitting a little way down the table from Jean was Eren, who was answering Mikasa and Armin’s questions about how his titan shifting was doing.

“Yeah, it’s still not looking too good. I really tried today but I still couldn’t control it. Levi had to cut me out again.”

Jean sneered as he glanced down the table at the titan shifter. “Way to go Eren seems as if you’ve become completely useless!”

Eren whipped his head around to glare at Jean. “You don’t know what your fucking talking about shit head, so shut up!”

“Oh, really? Because it seems to me that I have a perfect understanding of what’s going on, just like everyone else here. You’ve become incompetent and can no longer do the one and only thing you were good for. I don’t think I’m misunderstanding the situation, just telling it like it is.”

Eren jumped to his feet with intense ferocity, the strong smell of intimidating anger rolling off of him. “I said shut your goddamn mouth, Jean! Do you really want to pick a fight with me?!”

“You’re just proving that you're dangerous right now. Why would we continue to put our trust in you if you're a threat?!”

“That’s enough, Jean, give it a rest,” Mikasa interrupted. “And Eren, you need to calm down.”

Jean scoffed but stopped, his respect for the female alpha making him more willing to listen to her.

“Fucking alpha…” he mumbled under his breath as he gave one last glare at the angry boy down the table.

Eren sat back down with a huff. “Seriously, why's that asshole always got something bad to say. We weren’t even talking to him.”

“Just ignore him, alright?” Mikasa reassured him. “You were right, he doesn’t know what he's talking about. This doesn’t concern him at all. Soon enough you’re going to be right back to normal and have perfect control of your titan form.”

Eren gave her a small grateful smile. “Thanks, Mikasa.”

She blushed and looked away, not wanting him to see. 

At that moment a soldier walked up to their table. “Jean Kirstein?”

Jean looked up, slightly startled at hearing his name. “Uh, yeah, that’s me.”

The soldier nodded and walked towards him. “You're wanted by Commander Erwin in his office. I’ll escort you there.”

“Oh, um, okay then…” 

Jean got up from the table as everyone in the squad’s eyes turned to him with curiosity. He just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, _“I have no idea what they want with me.”_

He followed behind the soldier as he exited, going quickly to keep up with his brisk pace. Jean truthfully had no clue as to why Erwin might want to see him. He couldn’t remember doing anything out of line recently that would warrant a talking to, much less from the commander of all people. Everyone knew that the commander’s time was precious, so the fact that he wanted to speak with him must be important.

He also found it strange that he seemed to be the only one who was being brought to the man’s presence. If he had a mission he wanted completed or information confirmed, he would usually call upon more than one person. Sweat dripped down Jean’s face as he continued to approach the office. He had no idea what he was getting into with this, and that made him feel uneasy.

When they reached the office, the soldier who had led him opened the door for him and ushered him into the room. Upon entrance, Jean found that along with Commander Erwin, Levi and Hange were also in the room. There were standing around a table, arms crossed and faces somewhat stiff.

Erwin spoke as soon as he saw Jean enter. “Ah, Kirstein, you're here. Thank you for coming.” He nodded to the soldier at the door. “Thank you for retrieving him, you’re dismissed.”

The soldier saluted before making his exit, closing the door behind him. 

“Now I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve brought you here.”

“Yes, sir,” Jean responded apprehensively.

“We have something you need to do for us. You can think of it as a mission.”

Jean brightened up at that. This meant he wasn’t in trouble. In fact, it meant he was seen as special in some way because he was the only one they had decided to turn to for this mission. 

“Really, a mission?”

“Oh, don't get happy just yet. I don’t think you're going to like this very much,” Warner Levi.

Ok, so it wasn’t going to be an ideal mission, at least by Levi’s standards. But he could handle that, right?

“So, um, sir… Just what is this mission you're giving me?”

Erwin paused for a moment staring at the young boy. His eyes revealed uncertainty and slight pity, but he shook his head to rid himself of any doubts that he had about going through with the plan.

“We want you to mate with Eren Jaeger.”

Jean’s jaw immediately dropped as he gawked at Erwin. An uncomfortable silence filled the room as he stared wide-eyed at the commander in utter disbelief. Never in a million years could he have imagined those words coming from Erwin’s mouth.

“Th-this is just a joke, r-right?” Jean stumbled out. “There's no way that you’d really suggest I mate with that bastard!”

Hange shook her head. “Regretfully, this is not a joke, Jean. Eren’s alpha tendencies are what’s keeping him from retaining control while he is in his titan form. The best way to stop this is for him to take an omega mate.”

“Well then get some other omega to do it!”

“No, Jean, you're the only omega in your squad who isn’t mated and he needs someone he’s familiar with,” said Erwin.

Jean looked to Levi, hoping to find support from the captain on this matter. “But you can’t make me do this. I won’t do it.”

Levi grunted, “But he can. An order is an order, you have to do as Erwin says. As a soldier of the Survey Corps, you must obey him.”

“You're not asking?” Jean put out weakly.

Erwin’s voice became sterner and he put some command into it using his alpha voice, “I’m not asking. It’s an order. When you joined the military you pledged that you were willing to give up your life for humanity. This isn’t that different.”

Jean's mind was racing. What the hell was this? An arranged marriage for military purposes? Arranged marriages had mostly died out a few generations back except for among the higher class. The fact that he was going to be forced to mate an alpha by people who weren’t even his family was absurd.

“This is bullshit!” he yelled out. “I refuse to mate with that alpha idiot!”

“I know you're upset, I understand that, but think!” Hange tried to reason. “This is for the good of humanity! To stand a chance we need to have Eren functioning as a stable weapon and symbol of hope! Without him, we will crumble!” 

“I don’t care, you can’t just do this to me!”

“Enough of this!” Erwin commanded, slamming his fist on the table. “I won’t listen to any more of your backtalk. I am sorry that we have to put this upon you, but it's just the way it is! Now be a good soldier and do as you are told!”

Jean couldn’t respond as he felt an overpowering sense to follow the alpha’s orders. He hated standing there frozen, paralyzed by the man's words.

When he finally pulled himself together enough to speak, he quietly asked, “Did Eren agree to this?” 

“We haven’t informed him yet. We wanted to prepare you with the news first. Now return to dinner and behave! Don’t discuss this with anyone before we grant you permission to. We will call upon you when it is time. Dismissed!”

Jean slunk out of the room and headed for the mess hall, his head held low as he processed everything. Was this really happening to him? They were going to force him to mate with Eren? What the hell? It was all too much for him to think about and he was left shaking from the shock. 

When he found his way back to the table he tried his best to act normal as not to arouse suspicion, but it didn’t work. They immediately noticed something was off about him. Plus, they were already curious about why Erwin wanted to see him.

“Sooo, what did the commander want with you?” Sasha asked, leaning towards him slightly.

“I’m not allowed to talk about it.” He responded curtly. 

“Oh, reeeally…” She said suspiciously, obviously not believing him even though it was true.

Connie’s brows furrowed in concern as he observed Jean. “Hey, man, are you okay?”

“... I’m fine.” _No, I’m not fucking fine._

“You sure?”

“Yeah, everything’s good.” _Everything's the worst it could possibly be._

“Okay man, but you know you can talk to us if there is something the matter, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” _No, I can’t._

All Jean wanted to do was scream and let everyone know how inhumane and unfair this was. He especially wanted to yell at Eren, that brat was literally going to ruin his life. He shifted his eyes and glared at the boy.

_Apparently his life is more important than mine will ever be, I’m just some omega whose only purpose here is to be mated._

Eren was smiling and joking around with his friends, obviously having no idea that he was about to be bonded with some omega he disliked.

Then he realized there was a glimmer of hope. Of course! Eren would never want to mate with him! After all, they did hate each other! Erwin could order them to do it, but he couldn’t force them to. If Eren refused then there was no way they would have to mate. 

Jean felt a little relieved after this revelation and tried to relax. He still remained on edge, but he knew that there was hope for him.

… 

He had no idea that it was supposed to happen so soon. It wasn’t but a few hours after dinner, right before everyone was supposed to go to sleep. He had just showered and changed for bed and was almost ready to sleep. Before he could lay himself down on his bed two soldiers came into the room to retrieve him. He noticed that they both smelled like alphas.

“Sorry to disturb you, but you need to come with us please.”

Connie took notice from his spot on a nearby bed and quirked an eyebrow. “They're taking you again? Can you really not tell us what's going on, Jean? This is kind of weird, you know.”

The two alpha soldiers glared at Jean as if they were daring him to speak.

“No, I can’t, sorry Connie. I’d tell you guys if I could.”

That response seemed to satisfy the soldiers as they simply told him to start following them. He was a little upset that everyone suddenly felt the need to use their ability to give orders to him as an alpha all the time. He could be voluntarily obedient about most things, but they weren't even giving him a chance. To make it worse, as soon as they had left the room they both grabbed one of his arms with a tight grip. Erwin must have warned them that he could possibly be insubordinate so they were probably taking precautions. Although annoyed, Jean didn't resist because he didn’t want to stir up any trouble before he really had to. 

The fact that they were being so rough with him made the reality of the situation sink in for Jean. Although he was holding onto the hope that the mating would not occur because Eren would refuse, there were still doubts lingering in his mind. And he was starting to get nervous. 

What if they still somehow forced them to mate? What would he do? Resist? He could technically be charged with treason, mutiny, or whatever crime they wanted. And what would come if resisting didn’t work? Eren would mate with him and they would be forced to be attached to each other their whole life. That scared Jean.

The person you mated with was supposed to be someone you loved or at least had trust in. Eren was probably the person who Jean hated the most in the world, and he most definitely didn't trust him.

Although most who had gotten used to the titan shifter’s presence or had seen him in action now felt safe around him, Jean was still terrified of him. He tried his best to never let it show because he didn't want to look like a coward, especially in front of the brat himself. But he couldn’t get over his fear of the boy. It seemed ridiculous to him that everyone else had become pretty nonchalant about his powers at this point because he could turn into a fucking titan for goodness sake. Especially now that he was consistently losing control each time he transformed. To Jean, Eren was a monster who could easily kill him along with all of his friends at any given moment.

So it was pretty nerve-racking for him as he thought more and more about how he was being sent to mate with him. He was going to be mating with a monster. He shivered at the idea of it.

After a long walk, they finally arrived at a room. One of the soldiers knocked on the closed door while still keeping a hold on Jean. The door was immediately opened by Hange.

“Come on in please.” 

The soldiers let go of him and remained outside on either side of the door. Jean stepped into the room. He immediately spotted Eren standing next to Levi. He looked away and shuffled slightly when they made eye contact for a moment. Jean could smell discomfort in the air, which he was sure was mixing with his own nervous scent. Erwin was also in the room, standing at the foot of a bed in the corner that was just a little bigger than the beds in the barracks. 

Hange began speaking quickly. “So I hope both of you now understand the full weight of the situation and what we need you to do.”

Eren nodded, which concerned Jean, but he tried to just ignore the anxiousness it gave him.

“Before you proceed, I want to preface you by pointing out that the mating might not work.”

This immediately piqued Jean’s interest and he listened more intently.

“Basically two people have the possibility of being incompatible to mate with one another, but it’s rare because it's often a result of them not actually liking one another, both of them being too dominant, or that they don’t know each other that well. Courting before mating usually makes this almost impossible because usually during that process the two will determine themselves that they are not fit to mate. But due to our circumstances, we’ve unfortunately had to skip that whole courting process. We picked Jean because you already know him pretty well so that hopefully will make him more compatible.”

Jean smirked slightly at this information. He hadn’t heard much about incompatibility before, but from hearing the details that there was no way in hell that they could be compatible. They hated each other's guts, so that made the part about liking each other pretty detrimental. This meant that mating couldn’t work, even if he was willing.

“If you find that you think you're incompatible after attempting to mate with him, then we want you to inform those two guards who will be standing outside your door. They’ll come to notify us of it and we’ll take steps from there.”

“Wait, they’re going to be right outside the door the whole time?” Eren asked with alarm.

Erwin was the one who responded, “Yes. Jean showed a lot of resistance to this so they are going to have to stay out there to make sure he doesn’t try to escape. I know it’s an invasion of your privacy and might feel embarrassing, but hopefully, you can get over that.”

Eren let out a groan but didn’t protest further. 

“We’ve covered pretty much everything so now it's just up to you two. We’ll leave you alone now.”

Hange waved and winked at them as the three officers filed out of the room. “Take as much time as you need, you have all night after all.”

Levi glanced back at the two and gave a muffled but sympathetic, “Sorry.” He closed the door behind him and they heard it click as it was locked.

Now it was just Jean and Eren, standing alone together. Jean suddenly felt ten times more uncomfortable and he sensed that Eren was the same as his scent in the room became more distinct. 

Before the door had been closed, the room had only been lit by candlelight in from the hallway. Now the only light source left was a bit of moonlight that shined in through a tiny window on the wall. It was dark and despite not being by himself, Jean felt a sense of loneliness overcome him. At least the lack of light meant he wouldn’t be able to see Eren’s stupid face as much.

Eren was the first to break the awkward silence between the two. “So, this is kind of weird, right?”

Jean didn’t know how to respond to that. Why didn’t he sound angrier? Why wasn’t he more upset and losing control of his emotions like he usually did?

“Why the fuck are you being so calm about this?”

Eren grimaced. “Well, it isn’t ideal, and it’s not like I love that we have to do this, but it's the only option we have right now and I already yelled at captain Levi about it so there’s really no point in being upset about it anymore.”

Jean was petrified. “What? Are you saying that you actually agreed to do this?!”

“Yeah, I did.” He admitted. “Wait, are you saying you didn’t?”

“No!” he snarled, “Why the hell would I ever agree to mate with you?! I fucking hate you!”

Eren winced a bit at that. “They told me you said you’d do it…”

“Well, they lied! They ordered me to do it but told them no!”

Eren took in a deep breath and slowly ran a hand through his hair stressfully. “Okay. I’m sorry that you didn’t agree and that you don’t want to do this. I don’t exactly want to do it either. But what other choice do we have?”

Jean narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean what other choice do _we_ have?”

“This is the only thing that will ensure that I don’t get executed!”

“Oh, that’s really great for you isn’t it? Everything is about you, isn’t it Eren? Well, how about this: I don’t give a fuck. I don’t want to sacrifice my life to you like Armin or Mikasa would or give up on my chance to bond with a mate who actually loves me. Your ass isn’t worth it to me Jaeger.”

They stood there for a while, staring at each other intensely in the darkness. Jean could feel Eren’s anger level rising like it usually would and he started to get more nervous than before. He remembered that the brunet could shift into a titan if he wanted to, so maybe he should have been more careful about arguing with him when it was just the two of them and Eren wasn’t being supervised. 

“Listen here…” Eren gave out in a low, threatening growl, “We’re going to do this whether you like it or not because it’s not just about me. It’s about saving all of humanity and wiping out the titans. You’re blind if you can’t get that through that thick skull of yours.”

Jean frowned at the insult.

“Now come here!” ordered Eren. 

Out of all the alpha orders he had been given today, this one had the most effect on him. The power behind it was pretty strong and immediately forced his body into bringing himself closer to Eren. From this close up, he could see the alpha-like ferocity gleaming in the titan shifter’s eyes. Jean began trembling as they locked eyes, terror creeping up his spine. He was scared and unsure of what to do, or even what he could do.

“We won’t be compatible anyway…” He muttered quietly and as he attempted to reason with the brunet.

Ignoring him, Eren reached his hands out and gripped Jean’s arms gently. He pulled himself closer so that their chests were touching making the other flinch. Jean could feel his breath tickling his neck and it felt utterly strange. This close he couldn’t ignore the overpowering alpha scent being emitted from the boy’s body. Despite the fear and hate he had for him, his instincts were telling him that this felt right and that he should let him continue.

Eren looked into Jean’s eyes again. “I admit that I don’t really know exactly what I’m doing here, but I’m going to try my best. I’ll go slow and stay calm, alright?”

For some reason, Jean did feel a little reassured by that. The brunet began to lean forward, nestling his face against his neck. Jean heard him sniff, and once again smelt the overpowering alpha scent, but somehow it had suddenly become even more powerful, almost intoxicating. Smelling the omega directly from his neck where his scent gland was must have really affected the alpha. Jean felt it as Eren licked a section of his neck, shivering in response.

“We’re moving to the bed,” Eren commanded in a low voice. 

He pushed the omega towards it and they stumbled and fell onto the mattress. Eren shifted his hands to Jean’s hips and moved towards his neck. He licked him again, tasting his scent directly in his mouth. He gave what seemed like a satisfied rumble. Then he lifted one of his hands from the other boy’s hips and brought it up to his neck to position it to his liking. Jean was starting to feel a little relaxed when he felt a sudden sharp pain against his neck. He abruptly pushed Eren away from him, crying out in pain.

Eren growled at the resistance from the omega. “Don’t push me away!”

His tone made Jean whimper in response, naturally becoming submissive as he glanced at the alpha’s now lightly bloodied sharp teeth. 

“That hurt Eren.” He uttered urgently, fear leaking into his voice.

“It’s going to hurt, okay? It won’t work unless I sink my teeth all the way in.”

He slowly returned to his position on top of Jean and carefully lapped at where a small amount of blood was leaking from the small bite as if to prep the skin again. After a few moments, Jean felt the pain again and let out a whine. 

The omega in him was telling him to let it happen, but with the combined intense discomfort of being bitten and his extreme unwillingness to be mated by this particular person, he could not simply just let it happen. Once again he shoved Eren off of him, this time managing to push him off of the bed entirely. He let out a small shriek as more plain flooded his body. When he pushed the alpha off of him his teeth must have come out of his skin at a bad angle and hurt him more.

Eren was more than frustrated at this point. He didn’t like the level of resistance that he was getting and didn’t love being thrust to the floor.

“Alright, that’s it, asshole!” He snarled intimidatingly as he got to his feet, “I gave you your chance, I was being slow and careful to make you feel better, but now we’re gonna do this my way!”

Eren jumped back onto the bed, landing heavily on top of Jean. It knocked the breath out of the surprised omega and left him wide open. The brunet proceeded to roughly grab his wrists and pinned them above his head so that he wouldn’t be able to push him off again. Jean yelped at the swift motion and started writhing underneath Eren in a futile attempt to somehow escape. The titan shifter put his weight on his knees, lifting himself up and pushing his legs against Jean’s sides to still him.

“Quit fucking moving will you?!” He shouted at him in exasperation. 

Jean only moved more, his motivation to get away increasing by the second. 

“Just get off of me, okay?!” He whined in desperation. “Please!”

“You’re not going to get away with refusing to do this if they ordered you to! They’ll punish you! At this point, it’s for your own good, you piece of shit!” Eren reasoned harshly, not letting up his hold on the other boy.

Distressed and left with barely any options, Jean craned his neck upwards and bit as hard as he could into the alpha’s arm. Eren howled at the sudden pain and his grip loosened. The omega knocked his elbow into his face and squirmed out from beneath him, making a break for the door, forgetting that it was locked in his rush to get away. But that didn’t matter because he wouldn’t make it there anyway.

Eren dove for his legs, sending him tumbling to the ground. His body hit the floor and the alpha scrambled to stand over him. He put his arms around the other, lifting him and turning to slam him back onto the bed. Jean stared wide-eyed at the boy looming above him, tears forming in his eyes. 

“Please… _Eren…_ ” he choked out in a pleading voice. 

He wasn’t supposed to be so scared of his alpha. His alpha was supposed to protect and care for him, not assault him. This was not his alpha. He would never be. 

Eren plopped on top of him, this time choosing to place his arms beneath the omega’s back, his hands resting at his shoulders. 

“I know.” He spoke with a gentler tone. “Life isn’t fair. This sucks. But we have to be willing to sacrifice everything for humanity.”

He pulled Jean into what might have been an attempt at a hug as he released a calming scent. It settled Jean’s nerves a bit and he stopped struggling. He breathed in the alpha’s scent some more because he realized that it smelled good. As his body became somewhat slack he found that he felt really tired. Even if he wanted to, he didn’t know if he had enough energy to keep fighting.

Eren nuzzled his nose consolingly into his neck. 

“I’m… I’m sorry…” he murmured mournfully.

And then he bit down hard. He didn’t give Jean a chance to escape this time, hastily sinking his teeth all the way in. Jean screamed, tears streaming down his face. 

God, it hurt. Was it supposed to hurt this much? 

They laid there for a while, Eren still attached at the mouth and Jean whimpering beneath him. When the brunet felt he had been there long enough, he delicately removed his teeth. He licked at the deep mark he had left on the boy's neck, tasting his blood along with his pleasant omega scent. A strong urge to get closer to him came over the boy. He rolled off of the top of him so that they laid side by side, putting his arms around him and pulling himself against the omega. Jean shifted his body away towards the wall so that his back was facing Eren. He let out a final pitiful whine before passing out in the alpha’s warm hold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw, biting is the only thing they have to do to mate in this fic. This is my first time writing an A/B/O story, so I hope the rules I use aren't too weird. 
> 
> Reminder to please read the fic this is based on!  
> Link to Elysium: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963534


	2. Chapter 2

They woke to a loud knocking on the door. Eren yawned, turning and lifting his head towards the source of the sound. Jean just groaned, choosing to ignore it in hopes that he wouldn’t be bothered. 

“I hope you two are decent, we’re coming in.”

“What the hell?” Jean spat groggily as Erwin unlocked the door and entered with Hange. “They expect us to be naked?” 

“Well, it was possible you two could have engaged in intercourse. That’s a typical occurrence for people during mating.” Erwin reasoned.

Jean’s face turned red and scrunched up in disgust. “I would never fucking let this bastard see me naked or touch me like that!”

“But you let me bite you last night.” Eren snickered. 

“I did not just fucking  _ let _ you, Jaeger!” the Omega fumed.

“Well it’s good to hear that you actually went through with it, I was afraid that Jean might have convinced you not to,” Erwin spoke.

“I’ll need to take a look at the bite and see if it is going to be permanent. That will ensure us whether you two are truly bonded,” said Hange.

Jean was reluctant to show the mark on his neck, but he got up and slipped out from Eren’s arms. He hadn’t noticed that he had been holding on to him this whole time. He was making it look like they were some sort of couple or something, the idiot. 

Eren felt the urge to keep the omega near, the feeling in his gut telling him that the two other alphas could be a threat. He needed to protect his omega, keep him safe from them.

Oh.

That was not something he was expecting himself to think, especially in relation to Jean. He hesitated for a moment, but then stood up, allowing his instincts to lead him. He pushed himself in front of Jean, creating a wall between him and the other two.

“Eren? What are you doing?” the omega asked in annoyance.

“Oh~ Someones a little possessive!” Hange commented excitedly. “ I thought you wouldn’t make a good match, but maybe I was wrong!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it…” The brunet explained, slightly embarrassed by his actions. 

“I won’t do anything to him, don’t worry. I’m just gonna take a quick look. You can stay right beside him.”

Eren nodded. “Okay, that’s fine.”

Hange stepped forward, getting behind Jean and taking his neck in her hands. She brought her eyes close to the bite mark to inspect it. Eren let out a small growl but kept himself still.

“Okay, good,” Hange said with a smile, pulling away from the omega. “The mating bite is definitely a lasting one. Congratulations, you were successful Eren!’

The titan shifter puffed his chest out a bit, the alpha within him proud of being able to mate the omega. 

“Wait, you can’t be serious? It worked?” Jean responded in disbelief.

Hange clapped her hands together happily as she turned to him. “Yep! You’re bonded now!” 

“This isn’t something to smile about! This means that I’m attached to him for… forever…” 

Jean looked to Eren, fear and sadness shining in his eyes. 

“I thought it couldn’t have possibly worked…” He whispered. “We hate each other…”

Sympathy for the omega washed over Eren and he reached out to give him a comforting touch. But he flinched away from his hand, taking a step backward.

“What’s done is done, Kirstein.” Erwin pointed out matter of factly. “You’ll have to move on. Personally, I’m glad that this was successful. I appreciate your cooperation in this Eren. I will now give you permission to let your friends know about this if you wish to do so. Now it’s time for you two to return to your squad for the day.”

…

The two were escorted back to the barracks to change and then sent to the mess hall to join their friends who were eating breakfast. On the way there Jean decided to bring something up. 

“Hey, I know the commander said we could, but can we not tell anyone about this?”

Eren tilted his head. “Eh? Why?”

Jean shrugged his shoulders, trying to act nonchalant. “I’d just prefer not to, is that a problem, shit head?”

The titan shifter frowned unhappily. “Fine, whatever. I won’t tell anybody yet. You don’t have to be so annoying about it.”

When they arrived, Eren went straight for Mikasa and Armin, sitting himself down beside his adoptive sister. Jean felt a tiny urge to follow him and stay by the side of his alpha, but he refused to give in to it. There was no way in hell he was going to spend any more time than he had to near the brat. Instead, he sat as far as he could possibly get from the boy, which was next to Sasha.

The girl had been stuffing her face as usual but paused to acknowledge him. “Hey, where were you two at? Did Erwin want something with you again?”

Connie budded in, “Not just that, neither of you were in the barracks last night or this morning. Where did you disappear to?”

Jean shifted in his seat, adjusting the collar of his shirt to make sure it was hiding his bite. He didn’t want to tell anyone that he had just mated with Eren. He felt utterly embarrassed, ashamed, and degraded by it. He knew he might not be able to hide it forever, but he could sure as hell try to. 

“Uh, yeah Erwin had us both working on something all night. That’s all I can really tell you. He still wants us to keep our mouths shut…” He lied.

Connie sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to be satisfied with that answer. But let us know about it as soon as you are allowed, alright? It doesn’t feel great having to be left in the dark about things.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay. well, if you aren’t going to eat those eggs I’ll do it for you.” Sasha declared, pointing at his plate.

Jean glanced down at his food and felt a small wave of nausea wash over him. He pushed it towards the girl beside him. He didn’t think he could eat so soon after the events of last night.

“Actually, you can take them. I’m not feeling so great.”

Her eyes brightened with excitement. “Really?! Thanks, Jean!”   
  


She immediately began scarfing down the extra food without a second thought.

At the other end of the table, Eren’s friends were also questioning him suspiciously. 

“Where did you guys go last night?”

“Er, late night training with Levi.” He made up. He had been caught off guard since he hadn’t thought of a cover story earlier.

“Really? With Jean?” Mikasa said doubtfully. 

“Uh, yeah. Strange, huh?” He laughed nervously.

“Did it have anything to do with your titan transformation?” Armin asked.

“Uh, yeah, kinda. I guess you could say that.” 

“But what would you have needed Jean for? I don’t see how he could possibly make it easier to control your titan form. If anyone could do that it’d probably be me or Mikasa.”

“Yeah, you're right Armin.” Mikasa agreed, nodding her head. “I’d like to train with you at night, why does Jean get to?” 

“Well, umm, we weren’t actually together the whole time!” Eren stumbled over his words as he tried to make his story seem more believable. “Uh, and I didn’t ever actually transform so we didn’t selectively work on that alone.” 

“Hey,” Mikasa said suddenly, her nose sniffing.

“Huh? What is it?” Eren asked in confusion.

“You smell… Different.”

“What? I do?”

Armin joined in on the sniffing. “Yeah, she’s right! It’s like your scent is less all over the place, more tame.”

“When you sat down I noticed that you weren’t giving off that whole ‘ _ look at me, I’m an alpha’  _ kind of scent you started giving off a while ago if you know what I’m saying.” Mikasa pointed out.

Was he really smelling that noticeably different just after mating with Jean? That was interesting.

"Maybe, that’s a good thing right? It could mean that I’ll have more control when I transform, right?”

“That seems plausible.” Armin nodded, putting a hand to his chin in thought. “We did assume that the problem started because you presented which ramped up your scent and aggression… So if that goes away then maybe we can also assume the problem will as well?”

“Yes, but why  _ is _ his scent less prevalent now?” Mikasa wondered. “Did something happen, Eren?”

The brunet didn’t exactly know how to answer that without revealing anything about his new bond. 

“Uh, nothing comes to mind at the moment… Maybe my body just decided to stop being so weird, you know?” 

Mikasa's face looked concerned now. “I think you should take this more seriously, Eren. You could be sick! Maybe something is wrong!”

“I’m sure that I’m fine, Mikasa. Don’t worry yourself.”

“I think you should get checked out by a medical professional. What you're going through isn’t normal. Your scent shouldn’t just be faded for no reason all of a sudden.”

“Well, it’s not like it never happens,” Armin commented.

“What? What's the cause then?” The girl demanded as she faced the blond.

“Well it can happen if…” he threw a side glance at Eren and then shook his head, pushing his thought to the back of his mind. “No, just forget I said anything. It can’t possibly be relevant anyway.”

Mikasa narrowed her eyes at him, curious about what he had been going to say. But she decided not to push it. She could give him more time to think about it and ask him later. She knew him well enough to know that he always was able to process information and thoughts better with time.

“Oh, damn it, breakfast is almost over!” Eren realized, “I’ve barely started on my food!”

He started to shovel food into his mouth before they were yelled at to get ready to line up for training.

… 

The only thing that Armin knew would settle down an alpha’s strong scent and random aggressiveness so quickly after they had presented was mating. An alpha who has mated had less of a reason to express to everyone around them how great they were because they no longer had to actively look for a mate. Instead of searching for someone to bond with, their instincts focused on protecting their mate. They still would give off the same smells as before, just at a lower intensity. Of course, if their mate was around, their scent could easily skyrocket back up, especially if they were the really dominant type. 

But the thing was, Eren couldn’t have possibly mated with anyone. First of all, he would have told Mikasa and Armin about it already. In fact, he probably would have informed them about it beforehand. They were his best friends and the closest people to him. 

Second of all, Armin had never noticed him courting anyone or even taking a particular attraction to anyone. He hadn’t ever mentioned any crushes or anything. The idea of him suddenly mating someone out of nowhere just seemed so bizarre and uncharacteristic for Eren that Armin couldn’t possibly fathom it being true. That’s why he had stopped mid-sentence and decided not to bring it up. They didn’t need Mikasa getting unnecessarily suspicious and have her start drilling into Eren.

And boy did Armin know she would if there was any chance that he might have bonded with someone. The thing was, Mikasa wanted to be Eren’s mate. 

It had been a late night out on a small mission when she admitted it to Armin. They had both been assigned to stay awake for guard duty, and everyone else had already fallen asleep.

It was back before they had joined the Survey Corps and still in training when she admitted it to Armin. They had been assigned as partners for a training session and Eren was nowhere nearby. Somehow the subject of mates had come up and that’s when she said it.

He recollected how she blushed in embarrassment as she revealed the deep connection she felt she had with her adoptive brother. A connection that she felt was stronger than that of just a sibling. At first, it made Armin feel a little uncomfortable because he had always regarded the two as family, even if they technically weren’t blood-related. But he got over that eventually and could understand where she was coming from.

When she had confessed her feelings, Armin had asked her if she was sure about it. They were both alphas, so even if they did try to mate, they would probably be a struggle for dominance. Both would have the urge to be superior to the other within their bond, and it might even make them incompatible. 

Mikasa had simply shook her head and stated that if it came to it she would force herself to be submissive. Armin didn’t want to crush her hopes by telling her that natural instincts didn’t work like that, so he didn’t mention it again. After all, it wasn’t impossible for two alphas to mate successfully, just very unlikely.

Plus there was also the factor that Eren might not share the same feelings. Armin believed that Eren really only ever saw Mikasa as a sister. Yes, he did really love her, but it didn’t ever seem like a romantic kind of love in Armin’s opinion.

He wondered how she would react if Eren had mated someone else. She would probably be crushed. And pissed that he hadn’t told her. That would be a huge mess that Armin would like to avoid.

… 

Jean cursed as he ran into the ground for the third time in the training session. He felt his breath hitch as he slammed against a rock, pain searing through his shoulder. When he came to a stop he found that the cords of his grapple hooks were tangled, which must have been the cause of his fall this time. God, he just couldn’t get a grip today. 

He tried to lift himself up from the ground, teeth clenching at the pain. 

“You alright there, buddy?” came a voice from above.

Reiner landed onto the ground next to him, in a way that was more dignified than his own little tumble had been. 

“Uh, I should be fine, I did kind of hit my shoulder pretty hard though.”

“Let me take a look. It might not be a good idea to keep moving it if it’s bad.”

The alpha stepped forward, his eyes closing in on the lean boy's injured shoulder. Reiner’s heavy scent made the omega suddenly feel somewhat unsettled by his presence. The blond took notice of this. 

“You alright? You smell kind of nervous.”

“Hey!” A shout from above interrupted. “Get away from him!”

The source of the noise came shooting down from the trees landing not too gracefully just in front of Jean, barely avoiding hitting Reiner. It was Eren, and he didn’t seem too happy. The smell of anger was wafting off of him in steady waves. Surprisingly, Jean actually was made less uneasy by this.

Reiner immediately backed away defensively, putting his hands in the air innocently. “Woah there Eren, chill out! I’m not really sure what your problem is but I didn’t do anything wrong.” 

Eren growled uncertainty at the other alpha and then turned to look at his omega.

“He didn’t touch me Eren, it’s okay.”

The titan shifter gave one last glare at Reiner before starting to settle down.

“Jean, what happened?”

“I kind of got my cords tangled, which is why I ended up on the ground,” he explained as he began to untangle his cords.” Hit my shoulder while I was at it.”

“We should get you medical attention then!” Eren said worriedly, reaching out to touch him.

Jean slunk away from his hand, not allowing it to make contact. “No, I’m fine Jaeger, quit worrying about me. We need to get back to practice, Levi’s probably already mad at me enough as it is considering how many times I’ve fallen now.”

“This wasn’t your first time?” Eren asked, his eyes widening. “I should have noticed!”

“No, you shouldn’t have” Jean argued, frustrated. “It’s none of your business!”

“Uh, am I missing something here?” Reiner budded in, a puzzled look on his face. 

“You aren’t missing anything, this brat is just being bothersome like always,” Jean grumbled. 

“I’m sorry that I care! I can’t help it, it’s definitely not like I want to. God, why do you have to be so fucking resistant all the time. It’s annoying as hell.”

The omega growled at him, pissed off. “Fuck you, Jaeger, I don’t really care what you think!”

With that Jean finished straightening his cords and took off into the air.

Reiner just felt even more out of the loop.

… 

“Kirstein, that level of performance was unacceptable. What the hell were you doing out there?” Levi demanded.

Jean had prepared himself for this and just shrugged slightly. “I know it was bad sir, and I didn’t like how I did either, but can you really blame me? I’m not exactly in the best headspace today…”

Levi’s face scrunched up. He hated to admit it but the kid had a point. He was undeniably going through some shit at the moment, and he couldn’t really fault him for that. He should probably give him a break, at least for now.

“Fine,” He gave in. “I’ll talk to you later. But I want you to sit out for the rest of these exercises. I know you're out of it so there’s no point in you just messing around for no reason. Watch and observe everyone else.”

The other soldiers gave the captain and Jean quizzical looks, having no clue what this was all about. Levi hardly ever cut anyone some slack. They decided it was safer not to ask, and that if Levi so wished he would have disclosed any necessary information to them already. So they attempted to ignore it, but they still shot suspicious glances at Jean. 

Eren just felt relieved. If Jean had to sit out that meant he couldn’t get hurt again, so he didn’t have to constantly worry over him while he was practicing. The constant urge to make sure his omega was okay was getting quite bothersome, especially since he really should be looking out for himself.

Jean himself didn’t like the idea of sitting out, but he didn’t want to argue when he had just been left off the hook by Levi. This kind of treatment coming from that man was rare. 

“Alright, I want you all to give this another go,” Levi commanded everyone else. “Remember to still execute precise and accurate slices on the titans, even if they are just dummies. Now go!”

… 

After the soldiers had finished enough practice routines for Levi to be satisfied, he dismissed them. They all began to disperse, excited to relax for the time they had left in the day. 

“Not you, Jaeger.”

Eren, who had been walking away already, stopped, along with Mikasa and Armin.

“We’ll be doing some specialized titan training.”

“Again?” Mikasa huffed. “Last night wasn’t enough time for you? Maybe he needs to rest, you really shouldn’t be exhausting him.” 

Levi quirked an eyebrow, unaware of Eren’s little story that he had lied to his friends with. But he figured that he should go along with it based on the pleading stare he was getting from the titan shifter. 

“He’ll be fine. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but humanity’s got bigger problems to deal with than Eren being a little tired.”

Mikasa didn’t have a good retort for that so she turned around. “Fine. Come on Armin, let's go.”

When they were out of earshot Eren nodded at Levi. “Thanks for not questioning it. Me and Jean decided to keep our bond a secret for now, so I told them that I was training with you last night.” 

“Yeah, sure, whatever. I wouldn’t keep lying to that girl for too long though, she’s a sharp one. Besides, everyone’s going to find out about it pretty soon anyway. There's no point in hiding it.”

“Wait, why do you think they are going to find out soon?”

“Look, Eren, it’s pretty obvious when two people have mated. People are going to notice that Jean smells like you, that your guys’ behaviors have changed, or they’ll catch on to some other factor.”

“I guess that’s true. But it’s mostly just Jean who didn’t want to tell anyone. I felt like it was important to give him at least some choice in all this mess.”

“That poor fucking kid.”

“Is that sympathy I hear coming from you? I never thought I’d live to experience that!”

“Shut your mouth, Jaeger, before I do it for you. It’s not that far-fetched for me to feel bad for him. I honestly thought the whole idea was fucked up, but Erwin and Hange were intensely insistent of it. It better have worked.”

“I guess we’ll get to see, won’t we?”

…

They arrived at the field that they usually used to experiment with Eren’s titan form. It was far enough away from the other soldiers that it wouldn’t disturb them and also made it easy to ensure everyone’s safety. Eren cringed inwardly as he remembered his last attempt to transform done here that had resulted in the injuries of some fellow soldiers who were just helping out. Hopefully that wouldn’t be the case this time.

“Alright, Eren!” Hange yelled from a safe distance. “There’s no time to waste! Show us what you’ve got!”

Eren nodded in acknowledgment and brought his hand up to his mouth. He was more confident in himself now that his pheromones seemed to have settled down. He bit down on his hand and immediately a flash of light surrounded him.

Within moments he was in his titan form, now standing 15 meters tall. He breathed in deeply, flexing his huge hands as he acquainted himself with his form. 

“Eren, are you in control?!” Hange yelled, her hands cupped around her mouth in an attempt to be heard better by the massive titan looming above her.

He shifted his gaze downwards and felt the muscles at his jaw tug into a smile, which no one could probably see since it barely looked different with his constantly exposed teeth. He felt overjoyed because yes, he was definitely in control. His body hadn’t given into the raging anger within himself that would drive him to unrestrained violence and loss of true consciousness. 

He let out a great triumphant roar that shook the ground and made Hange and Levi stumble. Their faces flashed with nervousness, and he realized that the abrupt sound had probably led them to believe he had gone wild again. That was a dumb thing to do. 

To signal to them that he was in fact fine, he got down on his knees and leaned towards them slowly, extending his hand towards the ground in front of them. Hange’s face brightened, her eyes glittering with pure excitement. She immediately leaped onto the titan’s hand without any precautions. 

“Wait!” Levi warned, “Hange you should be more careful! He might still-!”

“Oh, lighten up, will you? He’s obviously in full command of himself, right Eren?”

The titan nodded his head in agreement.

“Oh this is just wonderful!” She squealed. “Just wait till we tell Erwin!”

…

Erwin was quite satisfied with the results. When they told him the good news he smiled, giving the brunet a proud pat on the shoulder. “Excellent work, Jaeger. This is a much-needed step forward for us.”

Eren smiled back at him. “Thank you, sir, I’m glad I could do it.” 

Celebration short-lived, Erwin switched to another concern. “I know you’re probably tired of receiving orders today, but we have something else that we need to ask of you.”

“What’s that?” Eren asked, tilting his head slightly.

“We need you to stay with Jean again tonight.”

“Wait, what? Why?! I don’t want to have to be near that prick all night again!”

“Look,” Hange began to explain, “we need the bond between you two to remain strong. It’s best for two new mates to stay close to each other as much as possible within the days following their bonding. Too much separation can disrupt the bond and make it weaker. We really can’t take any chances here.”

Eren stared at the ground, clenching his fists. There was really nothing he could do about this. He just needed to remind himself that this was for the good of humanity. He might think that he would go crazy if he spent much more time around that jackass, but he’d just have to deal with it.

Hange decided to make a suggestion. “You could take this chance to have intercourse? Maybe that would make it better?”

Eren’s face immediately flushed red. “W-What the fuck! No way in hell are we doing that! Can you guys stop bringing that up, it’s fucking weird!” 

“It’s only natural, Eren. You’re going to do it eventually anyway.” 

“What the fuck do you mean?!”

“Can we not talk about this, Hange?” Levi groaned.

She ignored him, giggling at Eren’s lack of understanding. “Oh, Eren, don’t you remember? Omegas go into heats. Once you're mated with one, their heat will send you into a rut, at that point it’ll be pretty hard for you to resist them.”

Eren mouth gaped at this information. That sounded absolutely terrible. Him and Jean? 

He wanted to slap himself when he suddenly felt some deep sensation from within at the thought of Jean being in heat. God, this just kept getting more and more messed up, how were they supposed to keep dealing with this?

He decided that he did  _ not _ want to bring this conversation up with Jean, because that would probably not end very well. 

…

At dinner, it had all but left his mind, thankfully. Instead of mulling over those unpleasant thoughts, he got to indulge in revealing his successful titan transformation to his friends.

“Really, Eren, you were able to do it?!” Armin exclaimed, a grin shining on his face. 

“Yeah, I had full control today!”

Mikasa reached over and forcefully pulled him into a hug. “Eren, you scared me so much. Please don’t ever lose your control again.”

Eren felt sadness wash over him as she spoke. He realized just how much she must have been worrying about him. After all, he really could have been sentenced to death because of this.

“Don’t worry.” He gently reassured her. “I don’t think I’ll lose this ability anytime soon.”

He glanced over at Jean again as he thought of what the boy had done for him. The omega appeared to be sulking again, picking at his food as his friends laughed beside him. The urge to comfort his omega came over him, but Eren resisted and stayed in place. He’d be forced to spend all night with him anyway, so there wasn’t any point in talking to him now.

… 

Jean was extremely irritated. He had just been informed that he would be forced to stay with Eren another night, and probably for even more nights afterward. He wasn’t sure when the torture would end. He guessed it wouldn’t actually ever end, seeing as Eren and him were forever bonded together. 

He trudged behind the guards who were once again escorting them to their private room. They did know they were capable of finding their own way, right? It wasn’t like there was anything Jean could resist against anymore, considering the bite that was already on his neck.

They shoved the two into the room once they arrived, once again locking them in.

“Why do they have to treat us like we’re prisoners?” Jean scowled.

“I don’t know.” Eren sighed. “Next time I see Erwin I’m going to ask if they can treat us a little better.” 

Jean just grumbled in response and headed for the bed. He might have gotten to sit out of half of the training today, but he still felt pretty tired, if only mentally. He plopped himself on the bed, kicking his shoes off. 

“Oh, we should probably change before sleeping.” Eren suggested turning to the two piles of clothes that had been placed on the small table near the door. 

This time they hadn’t gotten to change in the barracks. Instead, their clothes had been brought to this room so that they could go there directly. Eren found his pile and began removing his shirt to change. Jean got a glance at his toned chest muscles before snapping his head to the side, staring at the wall to give the brunet some privacy. He blushed a bit when he couldn’t get his mind to forget the sight.

Eren interrupted his thoughts. “Are you changing or what?”

“Yeah, yeah. Get off my ass, will you?”

“I wouldn’t want to be on your ass, shit head.”

Jean almost let out a squeak at that comment, suddenly having the image of Eren sitting atop of him in his head. It bothered him and he shook his head to rid himself of the idiotic picture. It must be because of their stupid bond, it was making him act in ways he really didn’t like.

Jean marched over to the table shamefully and grabbed his clothing. He paused before removing anything from his own body. He turned his head to see Eren staring into him, his eyes peeking with interest. Did he want to look at his naked body or something? What the fuck? 

“Hey, could you not?” Jean snapped uncomfortably. 

Eren jumped and his eyes widened. He hadn’t noticed himself how intently he had been watching the boy which was pretty embarrassing.

“Right, sorry, go ahead.” He stumbled as he forced his eyes to the ground.

Jean quickly changed, not wanting to give Eren any opportunities to see him exposed. He stomped back over to the bed and tossed himself onto it. The titan shifter was still standing, looking down at the omega as he shifted his feet. He slowly climbed into the bed, carefully laying himself beside his mate.

They laid there for a long time, exchanging no words and allowing silence to fill the room. 

“Hey, Jean?” Eren spoke gently, trying not to startle the other boy.

“What?” Jean snapped.

“Thank you… I know that you were forced to do this, and it’s probably really hurting you to have to do it, but you saved my life. You’ve allowed humanity to still have hope. I’m sorry that it had to be this way, but I truly appreciate it.”

For a moment there was no reply from the omega, with nothing but an uncomfortable stillness filling the room. And then there was a sudden sob. 

It was a sound that maddened Eren and made him want to protect his mate from whatever was making him cry. He grabbed onto Jean and forcefully turned him over to face him in his desperate urge to know what was wrong. The omega yelped at the movement, tears falling from his eyes.

“Jean, what is it?”

He could feel him shaking under his touch and smelt the despair in his scent. 

“It’s just so wrong, Eren.” Jean whimpered. “We’ll never get the chance to be with someone who loves us. We have to let our instincts lie to us and tell us we care about each other when we don’t. We’ll be slaves to our bond forever, and for what? For everyone else’s sake? What about us? What about me? Our lives just don’t matter? Our feelings aren’t important?”

It broke Eren’s heart looking into his sad brown eyes as he let his thoughts flow out. Knowing his true raw feelings made him feel regretful of his actions. Maybe he shouldn’t have pushed him so hard, been so forceful. He should have questioned the commander more, resisted before just going along with the plan. He should have listened to Jean’s pleas before marking him forever. 

And now he was crying too, a small stream dripping slowly down his cheek. “God, I’m so sorry Jean… I’m such a dumb ass… This is wrong…”

But what could they do? It was too little too late. This was something they could never run away from, never fix.

Eren put his hand behind Jean’s head and hugged him close to his body, trying to provide comfort in the only way he could. He didn’t push away, instead burying his head into the alpha’s chest.

“Why did we have to hate each other so much?” the omega choked out. “Why did it have to be us?”

Eren growled despairingly searching for some answer in his head. But there wasn’t one. The world was a cruel place. Too cruel. Someplace in his mind, he came to the abrupt conclusion that this was the titans’ fault. Whose else could it be? If it weren’t for them, Eren wouldn’t need to use and control his titan powers. This only added to his already blatant hatred of the monsters. The realization sent a wave of rage shaking through his body which he quickly gave into.

“I’ll fucking kill them all.” He snarled coldly, squeezing the trembling omega closer to his body. “Every single last one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'M gOiNg To KiLl AlL tHe TiTaNs!
> 
> I mean he had to say something along those lines eventually, right? It's basically in his blood. Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

This time they weren’t woken up by anyone in the morning. Jean was the first to get up, opening his eyes to find that he was still being held close by his sleeping alpha. He slowly shifted away from the other boy and propped himself up before leaving the bed. He tried his best to remain quiet as he didn’t want to wake him. Jean’s fear of the titan shifter was still very real, in fact, it only seemed to be getting worse. 

He stole a glance at his sleeping form, shivering as he recalled how he had said he would “kill them all.” That snarl of his had sent such a stark, raw sense of fear across his body. The problem was that during that moment, Jean didn’t have a fucking clue who he was talking about. Now that he was less tired and had a better ability for judgment, he realized that he had most likely been referring to his ultimate goal of demolishing all of the titans, an ever-recurring statement that he loved to make. But his mind hadn’t exactly been all their last night. Although it seemed an unlikely and ill-conceived conclusion, Jean had briefly thought Eren meant that he was going to kill every last human. His scared little omega mind had let him linger on that idea, and for a few minutes, he had legitimately believed that Eren had been driven to extreme murderous intent directed at those at fault for their situation.

He had been too terrified to move, to get away from the scary creature laying beside him. He worried that if he did move, the titan shifter would have lashed out in his angry state and done something to him. Maybe that wasn’t rational and didn’t fit Eren’s character, but Jean’s fears drove his mind to picture the worst. He couldn’t help it.

The omega was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw Eren starting to stretch, signaling that he was awake. The omega rushed to where he had left his clothes, grabbed them up, and ran for the locked door. He pounded his knuckles against it frantically to be let out. Despite admitting to himself that his interpretation last night was wrong, he still felt a desperate need to put some space in between himself and the titan shifter.

Eren sat up and looked at him drowsily, slightly confused.

“Jean?”

The omega turned and met eyes with him for a moment, slight panic flashing in his own. The door clicked as it was unlocked and a guard appeared in the doorway. 

“You’re up I see-”, began the soldier.

Jean didn’t wait around to listen to the guard speak. Instead, he slipped past the man and booked it out of the room.

“Jean?” Eren repeated, even though he probably couldn't hear him.

The guard stared after the omega as he disappeared before turning his attention back to Eren. “Did something happen?”

Eren just shrugged his shoulders. “I honestly have no fucking clue. I don’t remember doing anything wrong to bother the guy. But there’s always something for him to be pissed about, isn’t there?”

…

Apparently the guard was a tattletale because he had immediately reported to the commander how Jean had run from the room. Erwin had been dissatisfied with that information since it led him to believe that the relationship between the two had probably gotten worse. 

He wasn’t wrong. Despite Eren’s behaviors that were meant to be protective, the omega had only grown more afraid that night. 

Of course, Erwin had been quick to set up yet another meeting with Jean, ordering for his presence as soon as breakfast was over.

“I get that you hate Eren, I do. But I need you to understand that you have to put that to the side right now. Any problems with your bond and relationship could easily weaken Eren’s titan form. He’s quite susceptible to his emotions so we have to be considerate of that.”

Jean fidgeted as the commander sternly stared him down. He wasn’t exactly sure how he should respond to him. He couldn’t help being scared, could he? And why was it him that had to behave better? Eren was the problem here, not him.

“Look, it’s not just that I hate him, okay? It’s that he…”

Erwin quirked his eyebrow. “Go on.”

Jean glanced downwards anxiously, hating what he was admitting. “He scares me.”

Erwin scrunched his face and studied the omega. He supposed that made sense. The boy did possess quite a frightening power. Not only that but he had also demonstrated severe loss of control multiple times now, so it was reasonable for someone who had witnessed that to be afraid. But he had honestly believed that Jean wouldn’t be one of those people. For some reason, he had just taken him not to be the type of person to fear that sort of thing.

“He scares you, huh? That is problematic.”

“Yeah, I’d say so.” Jean mumbled sarcastically.

“Nonetheless, we can't let that get in the way.”

“How can I not?!” Jean retorted, balling his hands into tight fists at his sides.

Erwin closed his eyes for a moment, letting himself think the problem over in his head. He knew damn well that he wasn’t going to let this little inconvenience ruin the perfect plan they had already executed, so they definitely needed a solution.

“If we can get you to learn to trust him somehow, it should help lessen your fear of him.”

Jean shook his head. “Trust him? I don’t know how anyone can trust him. That’s like standing beside a known serial killer and just being fine with it.”

“But you do know that he is safe to be around, right? For you especially.”

The omega tilted his head at that. “Me especially? What do you mean.”

Erwin crossed his arms over his chest and gave the boy a somewhat pitying expression. He really didn’t seem to have a lot of knowledge when it came to bonding, which was rather unfortunate considering his particular situation. 

“Because he’s your mate, Eren naturally wants to protect you at all costs. Doing anything that would endanger you would go against his instincts. We can assume that this remains the same for him even in titan form since we know that his alpha pheromones affected his control. He won’t do anything to harm you, in fact, you’ll probably find that he’ll be overprotective of you if anything.”

Jean’s mind flashed to the day before when Eren had been worried about him being hurt during the training session.

“Well, that’s kinda annoying.” He grumbled unhappily.

“Anway,” Erwin continued, “I’ll set up something that will make you trust him. You don’t have to worry about it too much. Although don’t be resistant to it and try to leave any grudges behind, please. This is already hard enough as it is.”

“What exactly do you think you can do that could make me trust him?” Jean asked doubtfully.

“I said not to worry about it.”

The omega shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say, sir.”

“Good. You may return to your squad now.”

… 

When Jean joined back with the rest of his group they were in the middle of doing exercise drills. He took a moment to observe before jumping in the line they had going for taking turns running across the yard. Unfortunately, as soon as he was there, Eren came running up to return to the back of the line after just finishing his first turn. The alpha wiped the sweat from his brow, immediately taking notice of his omega’s presence.

“Jean, your back!” He said. “Did Erwin have something to tell you?”

“So what if he did?” Jean spat. 

Eren gave him a frustrated stare. “Look, I don’t feel like dealing with your whiny bullshit, okay? The best way for us to get through this mess is to cooperate with each other. That means telling each other things, alright?”

Jean did admit to himself that it would probably be a lot easier if they could get along, especially because it would make the commander happy, but that seemed like something that could never be a reality for them. Plus, he didn’t exactly feel like telling the person who he was bonded to that he was afraid of him. It would make him look weak and inferior as well as being awkward.

“There’s nothing to tell, Jaeger. He just had another one of his chit chats with me.”

Eren didn’t look very convinced by that. He knew that when Erwin talked to them there was always a reason behind it. He would have liked to point this out and get the prick to spit it out, but in the middle of drills wasn’t the best time to do that.

“Don’t think that I’m going to just let this go. For now, I’ll let it be, but you’re going to tell me later.”

Jean scowled at his assumption that he’d be any more willing to talk later and took off running as it was his turn to do the drill. He figured that he’d just keep avoiding the guy and he’d probably be dumb enough to forget it.

… 

“Okay, so change of plans,” Levi announced to the group of soldiers who were breathing heavily before him. “I know I told you earlier that we’d be doing some hand to hand combat training, but I’ve been informed that we will instead be engaging in a practice mission.”

“A practice mission?” Eren repeated bewilderedly.

“Yes, that’s what I just said.” He bit back sarcastically. “Good to know you still have ears, Jaeger.”

A few people snickered and the brunet’s cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment at being called out like that.

“Anway, it shouldn’t be all that hard for you to complete. Basically it’s going to be a hostage like situation. There will be a few people who will be ‘captured’ by ‘titans’ and you will need to save them. Why there would be any significant amount of time between them being caught by a titan and being eaten is beyond me. Just know that I wasn’t the one who made this up, so you can’t blame me if it doesn’t make any sense.”

At that Erwin suddenly walked up to the group, much to the soldiers’ surprise. “You don’t have to drag it through the mud, Levi.”

The captain gave him a displeased glare. “I’m just saying it like it is.”

“So harsh! Well, you’ll all be excited to know that Levi I will be acting as the ‘titans’ in this practice mission. We will fight back, so it isn’t going to be as easy as you might’ve hoped.”

“But a titan wouldn’t fight back in the same way at all,” Armin commented straightforwardly. “This just doesn’t seem realistic.” 

Erwin smiled lightly at the blond. “And maybe we aren't going for realistic. All you need to know is that you need to safely retrieve the hostages.”

Levi nodded. “Alright, so the hostages are going to be Jean and Sasha.”

“What?!” Jean immediately shouted in shock. “Why me?!”

Levi rolled his eyes. “We’re not taking questions at the moment, Kirstein.” 

“Levi will take Sascha while I take Jean,” Erwin explained. “ We’ll have a five-minute head start and then you can come find us. As you know, Levi and I are quite good at what we do, so there will be no need for any of you to hold back. Do your best.”

The soldiers nodded in confirmation.

“Alright, Jean,” Erwin said, approaching the omega. “Take off your ODM gear, you won’t be using that. Then you’re going to come with me.”

“Hey, Jean!” Eren addressed the omega as he was slipping out of his gear.

He turned to look at his mate who was staring him straight in the eyes, face stern and serious.

“I’m going to come get you, alright?” 

“Um, alright…” Jean muttered, so taken aback at how sincerely the boy seemed to be taking this that he forgot to be mad at him. 

Erwin grinned mischievously at the titan shifter as he grabbed onto Jean. “Attaboy, you come and find him.” 

And then he was launching into the trees with the Jean in tow, carrying the teenager firmly underneath his arms as they disappeared.

…

As soon as the five minutes had passed, Eren catapulted himself in the direction which Jean had been taken. During the time they had waited, they had made a plan where they would split the group in half so that some of them would go after Levi and the other would go after Erwin. Once heading in the general path that they had taken, they would all separate from each other in an attempt to cover more ground and quickly locate their target. If one of them found the ‘titan’ they wouldn’t be too far away from each other to call for help. 

Both Mikasa and Armin had chosen to stick with the group that was rescuing Jean. Eren appreciated the presence of his friends who he always knew he could depend on. He was a bit intimidated at the thought of going up against commander Erwin himself, but he figured it wouldn’t be too terrible if he wasn’t alone. Plus the idea of saving Jean spurred him on, providing a deep motivation within himself. 

After a few minutes of speeding through the trees, he found that he had lost sight of any of his comrades. It didn’t worry him though, it just meant that they were more spread out and would find Jean faster.

It was only a second later when he smelt it. He immediately tensed at the familiar sweet scent of his omega. It was still faint, but it would be easy to follow now that he had caught onto it. Eren swiftly changed his course to follow the trail of the smell, sending his body flying towards the source. He felt more tension build up inside of him as he got closer, preparing himself to face off against the commander.

He suddenly reached a clearing and came to a halt. Jean’s scent was strong now, so this had to be where he had been taken. The brunet glanced around the open area, searching for his mate. He didn’t see anyone. 

Confused, he gave the air another sniff. His mate had to be close, the smell was so clear. He looked around again, a little more frantically this time. 

Where were they? Was his nose playing tricks on him?

Then he heard a yell, one that was undoubtedly Jean’s voice. Eren whipped around and snapped his head upwards, finally spotting the omega high above in the trees.

Erwin was with him of course, and they were perched upon a thick branch. The commander was holding on to Jean and was… Was he holding him out in the air? Eren’s eyes widened as he realized that the omega was not on the branch but being dangled precariously with nothing beneath him, Erwin only holding onto him from his armpits. 

“C-Commander!” Jean yelped fearfully, “What-?! this is dangerous!”

Eren immediately launched himself upwards towards them in panic. “What are you doing!” He yelled out. “Are you going to drop him?!”

Erwin sneered and leaped away with his hostage as soon as Eren came within a close distance. Eren let out a growl of anger, diving right after them. 

A part of the alpha reminded himself that this was just a fake training mission, but another part of him was screaming to save his omega from the clutches of another alpha. He bared his teeth at the sight of Erwin touching what was his, dragging him around dangerously through the trees.

He let out a howl of rage as he dove for Erwin again, his blades out and ready to slice. Erwin made a turning maneuver at the last second, flinging himself out of reach of Eren’s swipe. The brunet clenched his teeth as he missed the commander by inches.

“Give him back, bastard!” He screamed with fury.

Preoccupied with yelling at Erwin, he wasn’t looking where he was going and ended up smacking into the trunk of a tree a second later. He had to catch himself before he fell all the way to the ground, a tumble that could have ended in quite the injury. Within a few moments, he was able to steady himself and return to the course he had previously been on, but when he looked back up he found that the other two had disappeared. 

“Shit!” He cursed, his fingers squeezing tightly around the handgrips of his ODM gear.

He came to a stop and attached himself to the side of another tree to catch his bearings for a moment. The brunet took in a deep breath and gave the air a few sniffs. Now that he was near Jean he knew he would be able to easily keep tracking his scent to find him again. A wave of concern washed over him as he realized that his omega’s scent was mixed with a sharp sense of fear. It seemed strange to him that he would be genuinely afraid since this was actually just a training exercise. There was nothing for Jean to actually worry about since he was just a pretend hostage. But then why was he that noticeably fearful? Had he just not expected this or something and been surprised?

Eren shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. He needed to just focus on retrieving him from the “titan”. This was a training mission and that was all that was important.

Or so he thought until he heard Jean again. This time it was a scream of pain that left Eren shaking slightly, almost like he had been connected to the sensation that his omega was feeling.

“Jaeger! Are you going to come get this omega or what?” A taunt was yelled out from somewhere in the forest. “You wouldn’t want him to get hurt, would you?”

Eren flung himself back into movement, heading directly towards the source of the commander’s voice. His hands were trembling with anger, but he didn’t let that stop him from keeping a steady and calculated course. Once again the pair came into his eyesight, and he did not like what he saw.

Jean was being clutched by Erwin, wide-eyed and trembling. But what Eren honed in on was that he was bleeding. There was red flowing from one of his arms, staining his skin. When his eyes met Eren’s he saw the very real and legitimate panic in his stare. 

“I thought this was just supposed to be some practice, but he actually fucking cut me!” Jean gasped out, his voice wobbling with uncertainty. 

Erwin’s grasp tightening around him as he brought up his blade, seemingly prepping to cut the boy again.

“E-Eren!” the omega cried out desperately as he scrambled, “Help me! Please!”

Eren let out a ferocious growl, surging forward as soon as the words had left his lips.

“Let. Him. _GO!_ ” he snarled viciously as he hurled his full body weight into Erwin.

The commander let out a gasp at the sudden collision, losing his breath as well as his hold on Jean who he involuntarily released. Erwin registered this and attempted to grab him again. Although it was perceived by the other two as him trying to remain in control of the omega and still keep him hostage, his actual intention in the moment was to prevent the boy from plummeting to the forest floor. They were extremely high up and he hadn’t thought that he was going to be so violently shoved into, so he hadn’t expected to lose his grip on Jean. Before when he had basically threatened to drop the boy it was just a trick to make him scared and Eren more serious about saving him. But this time the omega was actually in danger. Without any ODM gear, he would fall and possibly suffer fatal wounds.

Unfortunately, Eren ruined the commander's attempt by directing a brutal punch to the man’s face, disabling him from taking any actions and pushing him down against the thick branch he had been standing on. Blood from the impact of the titan shifter’s fist splattered into the air and another punch landed into his stomach. The commander stole a glance at the omega plunging downwards before looking back up towards the feral alpha above him. His eyes were filled with an absolute fury that was solely focused on the person beneath him who he was fighting. His rage was actually blinding him from the imminent peril that his omega was currently in.

“ _Idiot!_ ” Erwin shouted sharply. “Get Jean, Jaeger! He’s falling!”

The alpha whipped his head to the side, forgetting the other alpha he had just been attacking and focusing his attention towards Jean. The boy was screaming and Eren’s face dropped as he realized the dire situation his omega was currently in which he somehow seemed to have missed. He scrambled from the branch and hurled himself down recklessly towards the other boy. 

“Jean!” He screeched out.

Terror was written across the falling boy's face. He was obviously scared out of his mind and doubting that he was going to make it out of this okay. 

“I’m going to save you! I swear!” Eren reassured. 

Time seemed to slow for them and for a moment even Eren doubted he would be able to catch up to Jean. But within those seconds, he was able to use his grapple hooks to stabilize himself and speed right into the omega. It wasn’t exactly an elegant catch and it did hurt, but it was better than no catch at all. 

Eren let out an unsteady sigh of relief as he wrapped an arm around the boy to carry him. He was so glad he had gotten to him in time. Jean curled into his embrace and started sobbing into his chest, uncontrollable spasms rolling across his body. 

“It’s okay Jean, you’re alright!” Eren spoke, attempting to comfort his distressed omega. “ I’ve got you, there's nothing to worry about. You’re safe now”

“Th-Thank...”Jean tried to croak out. 

“Shh…” Eren hushed softly, “You don’t need to speak. You’re still shaken up. Just let me take care of you, okay?”

As Eren continued to press Jean against him he almost completely forgot about Erwin. He was more focused on getting him out of here than thinking about the commander. A bang sounded as a smoke signal was shot into the air behind him. That was the signal to the others that the hostage had been rescued from Erwin, which meant they would stop searching for him and try to help the group whose target was Levi. 

After a few minutes, Eren finally reached the end of the forest and they were back where they had started. He carefully landed and let Jean down.

“Are you good to stand?” Eren asked, concerned. 

Jean nodded his head slowly, trying to bring himself to stand up straight. Unfortunately, he was still shaking and he stumbled a bit. Eren grabbed on to him to help steady the boy. Though even once he had found his balance, the alpha didn’t let go.

Another smoke signal was fired somewhere among the trees, meaning that Sasha had been retrieved and the others would be coming back soon. Eren ignored that.

“Your arm is still bleeding,” noted the brunet worriedly. 

Jean glanced at the cut. “Yeah…”

Eren ripped off the bottom of his shirt to use as a makeshift bandage and proceeded to delicately wrap it around the other boy’s arm before tying it tightly in place.

“There… Hopefully, that will stop the blood until we can get you some more medical attention.”

Jean nodded silently and slowly turned to look into Eren’s eyes. “Thanks, Eren… I…-”

“Hey, Eren! And Jean!” A yell interrupted them. 

It was Connie, who had just appeared from out of the forest.

“Wow, did you get him back from Erwin on your own, Eren? Nice job!”

“Er, yeah.” He responded awkwardly.

“You know I never even got the chance, I couldn’t find Levi anywhere I looked. Oh well, maybe we’ll do this again?”

Eren growled. “We better not!”

“Woah there! What’s up with you?” Connie said as he put his hands up defensively. “Oh, Jean, you okay? You look kind of rough. What happened to your arm?” 

“Erwin fucking cut him for some goddamn reason!” Eren explained. “I was about to fucking rip that bastard’s neck out!”

“Why would he do that? That’s kind of messed up, this was just some practice. Was he taking his own fake mission too seriously or something?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to be demanding answers as soon as he gets back. Either way, I’m going to beat his ass for this!”

Connie gave a small laugh at that.

“What, you think I’m joking?”

The boy’s smile dropped for a second. “Er, no. I honestly just figured that you would have been glad or thought that it was funny that Jean got hurt. I mean it’s kind of uncharacteristic of you, you know?”

Eren winced as he realized that Connie was actually right. Before he would have probably smirked at the idea of Jean being hurt, especially at the hands of a higher officer. But his bond with the omega had made him go into a rage. 

The titan shifter shrugged his shoulders slightly. “Sorry for snapping at you, I guess it makes sense why you’d think that.”

His eyes drifted back to the downcast omega. He really hoped he was alright, he still seemed to be out of it.

…

Eventually, everyone had returned from the trees. Erwin must have gone and found Levi after their encounter because he arrived with the group that had retrieved Sasha. As soon as Eren spotted him he gritted his teeth and began stomping towards him, murder in his eyes. 

“I figure you would want to speak with me Eren. Calm down a bit and let's go have a talk in private. Everyone else, good work today! Levi will instruct you on what you’re doing next. Come along now you two.”

Erwin motioned for the mates and they followed behind him cautiously.

“So are you going to fucking explain or what?” Eren snapped impatiently. “ I wanna know what kind of excuse you have stuck up your ass for us!”

“Yes, yes. Like I said, please calm down. I didn’t do it without reason.”

“I’ll calm down when I know why you cut my omega!”

Erwin let out an exhale of slight frustration. “Alright. The whole point of all of you doing that practice mission was to get Jean to trust you a little more. If he were to continue fearing you it may become a strain on your bond, which would be a problem.”

“Wait, you’re afraid of me?” Eren questioned Jean in surprise, a tinge of hurt in his voice.

Jean hung his head. “Yes… Sorry, I couldn’t help being scared… You’re a titan…”

The brunet was speechless. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“But it shouldn’t be an issue now. I wanted you to demonstrate to him that you would go to lengths to protect him so that he wouldn’t doubt the fact that you would never harm him. Unfortunately, that did mean I had to very realistically threaten him to get you riled up, and I do apologize for that. But if I hadn’t cut you, Eren wouldn’t have acted out in precisely the way I had wanted him to. He has proven himself to you, don’t you think, Jean?”

“Yeah…” the omega agreed, nervously fidgeting his hands. 

Eren felt relieved at that response. But it still didn’t justify what the commander had done.

“Look, I get that everything you’re doing with this whole plan is meant for the good of humanity, and I understand that it is extremely important. But you're really crossing the line at this point and I’m going to need you to dial it back if you want our continued cooperation. Forcing Jean to bond with me was already unethical enough as it was, but you're asking way too much of him now. What happened today was unnecessary and cruel.”

“Are you saying you’re going to start disobeying my orders?” Erwin spoke coolly.

“No. I’m saying I want you to back off. Don’t ask anything more unreasonable of us anymore. This is already rough enough as it is. And if you can’t at least do that much, then yes, I won’t be afraid to go against your orders.”

“Fine, I’ll try to consider your _feelings_ more from now on. But do take note that although we might be taking more of your concerns into consideration, I still will punish both of you for any insubordination.”

…

That night there were no complaints from Jean when they entered the room together. He was tired from the antics of the day and definitely wasn’t in the mood to argue. Instead, he was remaining silent. Eren noticed this unusual behavior.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked worriedly as he sat down onto the bed. “I know today must have been pretty terrible for you.”

Jean shrugged his shoulders, picking at the bandages from the first aid kit that he been wrapped around his cut after the practice mission that day. “I’m fine… I mean it was pretty bad…But that’s the commander’s fault, not yours.” 

Eren gave a small smile. It was nice to know he was not putting any blame on him.

“Wanna go ahead and lay down?” The brunet suggested, patting the empty space beside him. “I really think we both could use some rest right about now.”

Jean gave a sigh and plopped himself down. They both shifted into a lying position and settled in with the omega once again choosing to face the wall.

“Eren?”

Yeah? What is it?”

“Thank you for today. For saving me… I really mean it… It means a lot to know that I can depend on you.”

Eren grinned to himself, pleasantly surprised at his omegas sudden expression of gratitude.

“Wanna repay me?” He prompted slyly. 

“What?” Jean grunted unsurely. “Repay you? In what way?”

“Face me tonight and let me hold your hand.”

Flustered, Jean shook his head. “Wha-? I… I don’t wanna do that…” 

“Come on, Pleaseee? It’s only fair~”

“Eren… Why do you even want that?”

“If you want me to be honest, my instincts are screaming that I need to give you attention and it’s killing me to go against them, even if you are a prick.”

The alpha gave a light flick to the omegas back in a joking manner.

“If you let me touch you then I don’t have to resist it and I can relax.”

Jean tensed for a moment, allowing himself to think it over. Then he quickly flipped himself so he was facing Eren. His expression was rather sheepish as he looked into his alpha's eyes.

“Fine.” He muttered uncomfortably. “Take my hand, you idiot.”

Eren immediately clasped his omega’s hand, lacing their fingers together tightly. 

“This feels nice.” He sighed happily, closing his eyes and resting his head against the pillow.

Jean rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to admit to himself that it really did feel nice to be able to hold onto his alpha. In his head he even imagined the brunet wrapping his arms around him as he had done before and bringing him close to his body. The extra warmth would be comfy. But he wouldn’t ever ask for that, it would be weird and idiotic. 

The omega found that he was quickly starting to doze off as his eyes became extremely heavy. He was soon plunged into a comfortable sleep, the warmth of the hand in his leaving a nice fuzzy sensation in his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They do be holding hands doe.
> 
> Sorry for kinda continuously villainizing Erwin, I swear I love him! :’(


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of shorter and I don’t like my writing in some parts, sorry about that. Hope you enjoy it anyway though!

“Eren… You smell strange somehow.” Mikasa said as she sniffed at him across the table.

“Excuse me?” The titan shifter reacted in surprise. 

He wasn’t exactly expecting that kind of comment this early in the morning. He stared at the girl across from him who was now eyeing him suspiciously. 

“Are you talking about what you mentioned the other day, Mikasa?” Armin asked curiously.

“No, it’s different this time. It’s like there's something more to it now...”

“Seriously?” Eren groaned. “Are you just trying to say that I smell bad?”

Mikasa shook her head. “No, it’s not that you smell _bad_. Just different somehow. I can’t quite place what it is, but it is familiar…”

Once he understood that she wasn’t just trying to say that he stunk, he quickly realized what it was she was smelling. It was Jean. The smell of his omega must be clinging to him all of the time now. He wasn’t sure how long it would take for his friends to figure out the scent and link it to Jean. He probably didn’t have much time left before they came to the conclusion that the two had mated. It would be better to tell them before that happened. Eren would have to discuss it with Jean some more.

“Are you wearing some sort of perfume now, Eren?” Armin laughed jokingly. 

Eren laughed nervously and shrugged. “I probably just smell different because I’ve been transforming into my titan form more often or something.”

That was a dumb excuse. Why would that affect how he smelled?

Mikasa didn’t believe it for a second. “Eren, that doesn’t make any sense at all. Can’t you at least _try_ to give a better explanation?”

Eren folded his arms and pouted. “Hey, I don’t have answers for everything, okay? Why should I know why I smell weird?” 

“It’s your body.” Armin pointed out.

“Wow, thanks for the support. Good to know that no one is on my side here.”

“Why are you being so defensive and grumpy?” Mikasa sighed. “If you just give us a proper answer then we can get off your back.”

“Like I said, I don't have a proper answer to give! I don’t know why you guys are on my back in the first place. I’m done with this.” 

Eren abruptly stood up from the table, obviously frustrated and unwilling to continue discussing the topic. He stomped out of the mess hall, muttering under his breath.

At the other end of the table, Jean glanced up from his food as the brunet disappeared. He sensed the frustration of his alpha and felt a sudden urge to follow him and console him. Without thinking of it too much he stood up and started after the boy. 

“Jean, where are you going?” Connie asked curiously.

“Uh, I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.” He lied quickly. 

Without further hesitation he hastily made his way out of the room. When he got into the hall he spotted Eren marching angrily ahead of him. The fact that he had actually stopped eating to come check on _this_ jerk dawned on him and he felt a sense of disappointment in himself. That guy didn’t deserve Jean worrying over him. But it wasn’t like he could help it. The bond with his alpha made it hard to ignore his feelings.

“Hey, Eren!” He called out.

The titan shifter turned around and blinked in surprise at the omega.

“Jean? You’re following me?”

“I know, I hate that I came after you too.” He grunted. “But I couldn’t help it, alright?

Eren snickered, putting his hand over his mouth in an attempt to hide his small smile. “Couldn’t handle being apart from your big handsome alpha, you mean?”

“Oh, shut the fuck up. You know what I mean. So what’s up? What’s got you upset?”

“Mikasa noticed your smell on me. She didn’t recognize it yet, but I’m sure she will soon enough.”

Jean huffed. “So what? I don’t think so. If you just tell her to stay out of your business she won’t be able to put it together.”

“Look, Jean, I want to tell them about us mating. I don’t want them to find out on their own. Mikasa… she'll be upset that I didn’t tell her…”

“ _Mikasa_ will be upset? Really? What about me? If word gets out that you mated me then…”

Eren narrowed his eyes. “Then what? What are you so afraid of?! It’s completely normal to mate, what’s your problem with people knowing about it? I don’t get it!”

“Yeah, of course you don’t get it! If they knew… All they’d be able to see me as is some weak omega boy whose only purpose was to calm an alpha and that’s it. Because that’s all I’m good for… To be a stupid mate for a stupid titan shifter…”

Eren paused and let his words settle in his head. He supposed that he didn’t understand that feeling of inferiority and wouldn’t ever be able to. 

“That’s… That’s reasonable, I'll admit that it’s valid but… I don’t think our friends will look at you that way Jean. A lot of them already have respect for you, I don’t think that sacrificing yourself to become my mate would make them think less of you.”

Jean clenched his fists. “Why wouldn’t they? I know I would… I mean who does that… Mates with a titan…”

“Hey! What are you trying to say? That I’m some kind of monster? Are you being serious? I’m trying to comfort you and you just call me a titan?”

“Well, it’s not exactly an easy part of you to get over!”

For some reason that hurt. Was all that he could be seen as? A titan, his own worst enemy? He felt like he had been stabbed in the chest by his mate’s words, and it felt terrible.

“Wow. You know what? I thought this was starting to work out. I honestly was beginning to believe that we had a chance of tolerating each other. But if all you see me as is a monster then I don’t think I can deal with you excuse for an omega.”

“Good!” Jean snapped back. “I’ve never wanted to deal with you anyway!” 

He stomped his heel and spun around, marching away from the brunet angrily. 

Eren growled lowly. “Shit! What is wrong with him?”

…

“So I was thinking about what you mentioned earlier Mikasa…”

“Huh?”

Armin and Mikasa were doing chores together. It was a sort of day off from training in which the soldiers completed a few tasks before taking the rest of the day off as a break. The blond was dusting some cabinets while the other swept the floor. She stopped moving her broom to give her attention to her friend.

“You know how you were saying that Eren smelled different?” Armin continued. “When I noticed that, the scent also seemed familiar to me. And I was just able to put together what it reminded me of.”

“What is it?” The girl curiously inquired. 

“Erm… Well…” 

Armin fiddled his hands awkwardly for a moment.

“... To me, it seemed that it was similar to Jean’s scent.”

Mikasa scrunched up her nose. “Huh?”

“I admit that I had entertained this possibility before and well… If Jean’s scent is so strongly attached to him… Considering he’s an omega… It would personally lead me to the conclusion that they had mated….”

Mikasa froze, the broom falling from her grasp and clattering to the ground. “What?! No. It can’t be…!”

“I mean we probably shouldn’t jump to conclusions!” Armin hurriedly reasoned, putting a hand on the back of his head and scratching anxiously. “I could be wrong!”

“No… I think you're right.” She growled. “There is no other reason that omega’s scent would be on him like that.” 

“Mikasa… If that is the case… What are you going to do? I know you wanted to mate with him.”

The alpha clenched her fists, her gaze falling to the still dirty floor at her feet. 

“Confront him. I’m going to ask him why he would mate with that filthy omega. I thought he hated Jean? And how could he not tell us he mated with someone?!”

Armin let out a small sigh. “Honestly, that’s what bothers me the most. It kind of hurts that he didn’t even tell us.”

“I’ll talk some sense into him… Or you know what? I’ll go straight to that dumb omega. Maybe Eren didn’t tell us because it wasn’t consensual and he’s ashamed! Does Jean think he can take the alpha that was supposed to be mine? I’m not just going to let him get away with this.”

Armin wasn’t so sure about her plan. “Don’t you think we should straighten this out with Eren? Just blaming Jean might not be the best course of action.”

“I don’t care. I bet he behaved like a slut and forced himself on Eren so that his instincts took over. There’s no way he would have mated with him other than that. This is definitely his fault. He’s going to face the consequences for that.”

Mikasa then stormed out of the room to seek out the omega. Armin almost attempted to stop her, but he decided that he was too scared to interrupt the alpha in her bout of fury. Maybe he’d just go ahead and talk to Eren. Jean would probably explain everything to Mikasa, so he should go see what Eren had to say as well.

…

Jean was still feeling pretty frustrated due to his argument with Eren. He had been sitting on a bench outside for a while now, staring into the distance just hoping that the fresh air would help to clear his head and calm him down. Unfortunately, he still didn’t feel much better.

If he was being honest with himself he wasn’t specifically mad at Eren. In fact, he was feeling bad for basically saying that it was a disgrace to mate with him because he was a titan. That was something completely out of the boy’s control, and he had never asked for it. Jean secretly wondered how much self-hatred Eren might be harboring within himself since he despised those things so much. He definitely hadn’t helped by making that negative comment. Maybe the alpha was now sitting around somewhere wallowing in self loathe because of him. 

Jean shook his head, trying to rid himself of the sudden pity he felt for his mate. He bit the inside of his cheek as he thought about how he would be the reason for Eren being upset. Goodness, he was really being a jerk, wasn’t he? Eren had been kind to him over the last few days, listening to him complain and only attempting to comfort him. All Jean did in return was blame him and be nasty. He had to keep reminding himself that no, in no way was this Eren’s fault. He really should be trying to treat the alpha better.

The omega pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his legs, clenching his hands around his ankles and squeezing his eyes shut. Emotions were so hard to deal with or understand, especially when he didn’t know which were coming from his true self versus his omega self.

He opened his eyes wearily and raised one of his hands to absentmindedly mess with a strand of his hair. He should probably tell Eren these things. Being more open would probably solve a few of their problems, though he feared being made fun of. He chuckled at that, realizing it was hypocritical because he would definitely make fun of Eren for saying such things. Or at least he would have before all this, back when things were normal. 

Would things ever be normal again? He supposed this reality would eventually become his new normal. This new normal was confusing and exhausting.

“Jean!” Someone snarled from somewhere behind him.

The omega jumped a bit as he whipped his head around. He spotted Mikasa running towards him, a nasty look on her face. What did she want? 

“Uh, yeah?” He responded, perplexed and unsure of what he should be expecting. 

Suddenly the female alpha was right in his face, her teeth bared at him ferociously. He yelped in shock as her fist came crashing into his face, throwing his body off of the bench and falling into the ground. He landed hard against the dirt, cringing at the painful impact.

“What the hell?!” He howled at her. “What do you think you’re doing!?”

Mikasa towered over him maliciously, taking deep breaths to recover the air she had lost from running.

“You filthy bastard, you seduced Eren, didn’t you?”

“What?” Jean uttered. 

He was at a loss for words. He didn’t know how to respond to that. So she knew that they were mates he figured, but where in the hell had she gotten this idea about seduction?

“I’ll take your silence as a yes. Are all omegas this nasty? You slut, I’m going to make you regret forcing your way into his bed!”

The alpha gave a quick, sharp kick to Jean’s side. He gasped in pain as the wind was knocked out of him. 

“Wait! Stop, please! There's been a misunderstanding!” He begged.

“I’m going to put you in your place, you lowly piece of trash!”

She continued relentlessly, allowing her adrenaline to guide her as she left bruises behind on his body. 

“How could you take him away from me!” She cried out emotionally, tears in her eyes.

…

“Eren.”

“Huh? Oh hey, what’s up Armin?” 

It hadn’t taken the blond long to find his friend who had seemed to just be walking along the halls. When he had spotted him, it appeared as if the brunet was deep in thought. He had looked kind of sad. Armin decided that he would just cut right to the point.

“Did you mate with Jean?”

Eren stared at him for a moment, his eyes somewhat absent, like he was still lost in his previous thoughts. Armin had honestly expected some sort of surprised reaction or immediate rejection of what he had said, but his friend just seemed unphased by his question. 

“I knew you would figure it out.” He mumbled calmly. “You're too smart to not have.”

So he hadn’t been wrong then. In the back of Armin’s mind he had believed that maybe his assumption had been completely incorrect and that the evidence had just been irrelevant bits of information he had noticed.

“Why didn’t you tell us Eren?” Armin asked. He felt betrayed in a way. If Eren didn’t tell Mikasa and him something as important as this, then they must not be as close as he had thought they were.

“I know how it must come off to you, that I couldn't trust you guys or didn't care enough to let you know,” Eren answered. “But I promise you that wasn’t it. I wanted to tell you. But Jean… He preferred that you guys not know, and I felt like I had to respect his wishes for at least a time…. Considering the situation he has been put in.”

“Should that really have been his decision to make? And what do you mean by the situation he has been put in?”

Eren sighed and put his hand to his forehead as if he was having a sudden headache from just talking about this.

“Look, I should probably explain this to both of you guys together since it’s a bit complicated. Where’s Mikasa?”

“After I told her what I thought was going on, she went looking for Jean. She’s mostly putting blame on him for this because… Erm, well because she… Uh, never mind that’s not for me to explain. Anyway, that's where she ran off to.”

“She’s blaming him? Why’s she blaming anyone? Was she upset?”

“Yeah, pretty upset. Really angry.”

“Well let’s find her before she gets to Jean, she’s misunderstanding things. Jean isn’t to blame for anything.”

Eren quickly exited the room with Armin right behind him. He knew he had just been upset with the brat, but he still didn’t want Mikasa to be holding him responsible for any of this. 

Eventually, their search for Mikasa led them outside, where they spotted her. Eren gasped in horror when he saw the alpha kicking his omega. 

“Mikasa!” He yelled, “What the hell are you doing?! Stop!”

The female paused her assault on Jean to look up at the titan shifter. 

“Eren...” She spoke softly, longingness in her voice.

The brunet came running up to the two, falling on his knees beside Jean. The omega was laying on his side, cringing in pain as he glanced upwards and made eye contact with his alpha. Eren gently reached his arms out towards him, observing where he had been hurt and placing his hands soothingly on the boy where it wouldn’t give him pain. He snarled as he whipped his head around to face the other alpha.

“I’m not sure what kind of explanation you could give me to justify what you were doing to Jean. But whatever it is, you’re going to tell me right the fuck now!”

Mikasa’s temporarily softened expression quickly hardened at his accusative tone. “Did this disgusting omega not force himself upon you, Eren?! I know how much you dislike him, you would never choose him as a mate!”

Eren stifled himself from yelling at her. Her reaction to this was definitely over the top behavior that he hadn’t expected from her, but despite her strange and reprehensible actions, he couldn’t bring himself to completely condemn her.

“Fuck.” He cursed sharply. “We should have told you guys about this as soon as we were allowed to. I didn’t realize just how badly you would react or the frenzy you might go into.”

Eren looked down at his omega, who was looking at him with anxious eyes. He was his first priority, explanation could wait for the moment.

“Jean, are you okay? Are you hurt badly?”

“I think I’m fine.” the omega mumbled out. “She probably gave me some bad bruises, but nothing too severe.”

“Alright, let me help you sit up then.”

Eren put a hand behind the boy to give him some support to prop himself up on. Jean slowly shifted himself up into a sitting position. He shot a nervous glance at Mikasa who was staring daggers at him.

“I’m going to need you to calm down and just listen to me, Mikasa.” Eren spoke. “Can you sit down please? You too Armin.”

His two friends stiffly sat themselves down on the grass across from him, intently waiting for the brunet to start talking.

“Let me clarify that neither of us wanted to mate. You weren’t wrong about that. Nonetheless, despite our own desires, we had to. Commander Erwin ordered us to because it was the fastest and best way for me to regain stable control over my titan form. My alpha pheromones were the problem, and the best way to settle them down was to take on an omega mate. Jean here was the only omega in our squad who was unmated. They wanted it to be someone I was familiar with, so that's why it had to be him. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner, but Jean didn’t wish to. He still maintains issues with being my mate and didn’t want to let it be known.”

There was a momentary silence as they processed what Eren had explained.

“That's just terrible,” Armin commented sympathetically. “An arranged mating by the commander. But for humanity I suppose…”

“Yes, as well as for my own life. If I’m unable to keep my titan under control then it's pretty likely that I’ll be sentenced to death.”

“God…” Mikasa muttered, bowing her head down remorsefully. “Jean, I’m sorry… I really made a huge misjudgment and just let myself lose control. Please forgive me.”

The omega sighed begrudgingly and looked away from her. “It’s alright… I guess. Just as long as you know that I’m not just some omega slut or whatever.”

Despite his words, he didn’t truly forgive her. He mostly just said that in hopes of avoiding more problems. Instead of getting mad and being honest, he just resentfully scooted away from her a bit more.

“We’re going to have to make sure that no one figures out about this if we’re going to avoid you getting punished, Mikasa. You kind of assaulted a fellow soldier.”

“Should she not be punished?” Jean asked, shocked that they would just let her get away from this clean. Sure he had said it was ‘alright’, but in no way did that mean she shouldn’t face consequences for what she had done.

“I mean it’s partially our fault because we didn’t let her know.”

“That's not really a good enough excuse in my opinion.” Jean grumbled back.

“Well, I just think that-”

“Eren.” Mikasa interrupted him, her voice shaky. “I have to tell you something.”

The brunet shifted his attention to her, his expression inquisitive.

“I know that it’s too late now… But it relates to my reaction, and I feel as if I need to tell you and just get it off my chest.”

“Okay...? Go on.” He urged her.

“I… I had wanted to mate with you.” She admitted with a sob.

“Oh… That’s...” 

“You don’t have to respond in any kind of way, considering that it’s impossible now anyway. I just needed you to know. Whether you could have ever felt the same… Well, it simply doesn’t and can’t matter anymore. But that's why this upset me so much.”

“Mikasa…”

He hadn’t had any idea that she felt that way about him. Although he had never loved her in that way, he couldn’t help but feel pity for her.

“I’m so sorry.” He said gently, reaching out to place his hand consolingly on her shoulder. “Now I understand just how difficult this is for all of us. But you get why it has to be this way, right?”

She wiped away a tear from her eye and nodded her head firmly.

“I understand. Don’t worry, I don't resent you for this.” She reassured him.

Eren remained silent and opted for looking at Jean. His mate was blankly staring at his feet, showing no response to what was being said. It wasn’t like he was ignoring them, he had quite clearly heard what Mikasa had said. 

The fact was that he now felt extremely guilty. He was the reason that Mikasa could never be with the person she loved. And he didn’t even love Eren, so it was like he was meaninglessly taking her spot in a way. 

He couldn’t take this constant assault of emotions, it was too much. He picked himself up from the ground and began walking away.

“I’m gonna go do some solo training.” He told them absently as an excuse.

Eren felt his heart tug as his omega walked away from him. He didn’t want him to go. He wanted to make sure that he was alright. But he also wanted to respect his choice to be alone. He bit his lip and refrained from saying anything because he lacked any of the right words to even reach his mate at this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone had to beat up Jean again, right? 
> 
> In all seriousness, this might have been OOC for Mikasa to do, but she was blinded by love and had truly convinced herself that Jean had forced himself on Eren somehow. Let me know your thoughts, I love the feedback I get from you guys!


End file.
